Where to start when designing an entrance
Designing an entrance does not start with the mirror and the light fitting. It starts with what you do in the first two minutes after coming in and the last two before going out. Who arrives at the same time, what they take off, what they leave, where keys and phone go, where they sit to put shoes on. Once those actions are written down, dimensions, lighting and materials almost choose themselves.
The entrance is the first room guests see and the last one you see when leaving in the morning. If it is permanently cluttered, no amount of decoration will fix it. If it works, it can be very simple and still have real character.
Write down what you bring home
Keep a simple inventory for a week: bags, backpacks, laptop, umbrellas, seasonal coats, every family member's shoes, a pushchair or scooter, the dog's lead and muddy paws after a walk, shopping bags, parcels. In a flat in central Barcelona that is one picture. In a house in Castelldefels it is another: sand from the beach, wet towels, boards, bikes.
The inventory shows what has to live in the entrance and what can go further in. Seasonal coats, for instance, belong in a corridor wardrobe rather than by the door; beach kit fits better at the garden entrance than at the front door. We cover storage systems in a separate article; here the point is to establish volume and location.
Circulation and dimensions
Draw the plan with the front door open. It swings inwards and takes space, so a cupboard right behind it will only open halfway. Then trace the route from the door into the home: it has to stay clear even when someone is sitting on the bench putting shoes on and someone else is taking off a coat.
A bench is handy, but only if there is still a way past it. A console for keys and post needs to be slim, or everyone will bump into it. In the long corridors of Eixample flats the entrance often runs into the corridor with no clear boundary; it is better to define it with flooring, lighting or a niche than to close it off with a wall.
Technical items that need hiding
The entrance often ends up housing the consumer unit, the telecoms box, the video entry phone, the alarm panel and sometimes meters. You cannot simply cover them with solid joinery, because the consumer unit needs access. The answer is to build them into a cupboard with its own door, or behind a push-to-open panel flush with the wall. It is planned together with the electrics, so the consumer unit ends up where it is easy to conceal.
This is also the place for a switch that turns off every light in the home and a socket for charging a phone or a cordless vacuum. Small things, but easy to sort out at the start.
Then there is the front door itself. In an apartment building you hear the stairwell and the lift through it, so a security door with good perimeter seals and a proper threshold deals with both safety and noise. It is replaced before the entrance is finished, because fitting it damages the reveals and the floor at the threshold.
Lighting, mirror and finishes
Entrance lighting needs to switch on right by the door or by sensor, especially when you come in with your hands full. You need general light plus light at the mirror that falls on your face from the front, not from above. A full-length mirror makes a narrow entrance look wider and saves a trip to the bedroom to check how you look.
The entrance floor takes street dirt, water from umbrellas and sand. It has to be hard-wearing, easy to clean and unbothered by water; it is often a different material from the living room, with a neat transition and no threshold. Walls at bag and shoulder height suffer first, so the paint must be washable and corners protected. Joinery on legs or wall-hung makes cleaning underneath easier.
What to send before the design
A photo of your entrance on an ordinary weekday evening, not just after tidying, the week's inventory and a measured plan. That photo explains the job better than any magazine image. We design and renovate flats and houses in Barcelona and along the coast, with one person in charge of each project, in Spanish or Russian. We reply within an hour.